# # Chronos # # (c) Copyright 2015 Dominik Picheta # (c) Copyright 2018-Present Status Research & Development GmbH # # Licensed under either of # Apache License, version 2.0, (LICENSE-APACHEv2) # MIT license (LICENSE-MIT) {.push raises: [].} ## Chronos ## ************* ## ## This module implements asynchronous IO. This includes a dispatcher, ## a ``Future`` type implementation, and an ``async`` macro which allows ## asynchronous code to be written in a synchronous style with the ``await`` ## keyword. ## ## The dispatcher acts as a kind of event loop. You must call ``poll`` on it ## (or a function which does so for you such as ``waitFor`` or ``runForever``) ## in order to poll for any outstanding events. The underlying implementation ## is based on epoll on Linux, IO Completion Ports on Windows and select on ## other operating systems. ## ## The ``poll`` function will not, on its own, return any events. Instead ## an appropriate ``Future`` object will be completed. A ``Future`` is a ## type which holds a value which is not yet available, but which *may* be ## available in the future. You can check whether a future is finished ## by using the ``finished`` function. When a future is finished it means that ## either the value that it holds is now available or it holds an error instead. ## The latter situation occurs when the operation to complete a future fails ## with an exception. You can distinguish between the two situations with the ## ``failed`` function. ## ## Future objects can also store a callback procedure which will be called ## automatically once the future completes. ## ## Futures therefore can be thought of as an implementation of the proactor ## pattern. In this ## pattern you make a request for an action, and once that action is fulfilled ## a future is completed with the result of that action. Requests can be ## made by calling the appropriate functions. For example: calling the ``recv`` ## function will create a request for some data to be read from a socket. The ## future which the ``recv`` function returns will then complete once the ## requested amount of data is read **or** an exception occurs. ## ## Code to read some data from a socket may look something like this: ## ## .. code-block::nim ## var future = socket.recv(100) ## future.addCallback( ## proc () = ## echo(future.read) ## ) ## ## All asynchronous functions returning a ``Future`` will not block. They ## will not however return immediately. An asynchronous function will have ## code which will be executed before an asynchronous request is made, in most ## cases this code sets up the request. ## ## In the above example, the ``recv`` function will return a brand new ## ``Future`` instance once the request for data to be read from the socket ## is made. This ``Future`` instance will complete once the requested amount ## of data is read, in this case it is 100 bytes. The second line sets a ## callback on this future which will be called once the future completes. ## All the callback does is write the data stored in the future to ``stdout``. ## The ``read`` function is used for this and it checks whether the future ## completes with an error for you (if it did it will simply raise the ## error), if there is no error however it returns the value of the future. ## ## Asynchronous procedures ## ----------------------- ## ## Asynchronous procedures remove the pain of working with callbacks. They do ## this by allowing you to write asynchronous code the same way as you would ## write synchronous code. ## ## An asynchronous procedure is marked using the ``{.async.}`` pragma. ## When marking a procedure with the ``{.async.}`` pragma it must have a ## ``Future[T]`` return type or no return type at all. If you do not specify ## a return type then ``Future[void]`` is assumed. ## ## Inside asynchronous procedures ``await`` can be used to call any ## procedures which return a ## ``Future``; this includes asynchronous procedures. When a procedure is ## "awaited", the asynchronous procedure it is awaited in will ## suspend its execution ## until the awaited procedure's Future completes. At which point the ## asynchronous procedure will resume its execution. During the period ## when an asynchronous procedure is suspended other asynchronous procedures ## will be run by the dispatcher. ## ## The ``await`` call may be used in many contexts. It can be used on the right ## hand side of a variable declaration: ``var data = await socket.recv(100)``, ## in which case the variable will be set to the value of the future ## automatically. It can be used to await a ``Future`` object, and it can ## be used to await a procedure returning a ``Future[void]``: ## ``await socket.send("foobar")``. ## ## If an awaited future completes with an error, then ``await`` will re-raise ## this error. ## ## Handling Exceptions ## ------------------- ## ## The ``async`` procedures also offer support for the try statement. ## ## .. code-block:: Nim ## try: ## let data = await sock.recv(100) ## echo("Received ", data) ## except CancelledError as exc: ## # Handle exc ## ## Discarding futures ## ------------------ ## ## Futures should **never** be discarded. This is because they may contain ## errors. If you do not care for the result of a Future then you should ## use the ``asyncSpawn`` procedure instead of the ``discard`` keyword. ## ``asyncSpawn`` will transform any exception thrown by the called procedure ## to a Defect ## ## Limitations/Bugs ## ---------------- ## ## * The effect system (``raises: []``) does not work with async procedures. import ./internal/[asyncengine, asyncfutures, asyncmacro, errors] export asyncfutures, asyncengine, errors export asyncmacro.async, asyncmacro.await, asyncmacro.awaitne, asyncraises